the Solicitors / Funktion

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Dayton, 1969-85?

Another strong group from America's funkiest city, The Solicitors started out playing a harder edged funk sound.

The band was led by Leroy Evans, who also wrote many of their songs. Some of the other members included Larry Houston, Leon Robinson, Derrall Leavell, Jack Buttermore, Allen Bradford. Later members included Rocky King and Wayne Streeter. Two other names that show up on one of their records was Charles Flax and William Springer, they seem to have been in the production side.

The group recorded "Music For The Brothers" which seems to be their 1st 45, on a one shot label acalled Metro. Charles Flax was behind the label, as he and William Springer are also on the Flax label who had one 45 by a group called the Reflections. They were able to claim one of the best publishing company names ever...Pimp Music, BMI!  "Music..." got some attention and the song was reissued on the Excello label from Nashville, a 1970s incarnation of the label that had Slim Harpo and Lazy Lester in the previous decade.

The band played a lot of concert type shows, including often in Columbus where they had a large following.

They released another 45 on Excello, and a fourth record on Abet, owned by the same parent company as Excello.

They continued to perform, apparently using the name Funktion, through the 1970s. In the early 1980s, with some different members, they had a couple more records on the San-Ton label, a Columbus label that was distributed through Nashville. The first one "Joyce" was a modern R&B record with synthesizers. A couple years later they had a rap sound with "Hitman".

Discography:
Music For The Brothers / Get With It - Metro 1000/1, 1970
Music For The Brothers / Acid - Excello 2311
Do You Like Do You Feel It / Long Journey - Excello 2317
Robot Strut / Long Journey - Abet 9448
Joyce (vocal) / Joyce (short instrumental) - San-Ton 834, 1983
Hitman (extended mix) / Hitman - San-Ton  0002, 1985